Ruti G. Teitel

An internationally recognized authority on international law, international human rights, transitional justice, and comparative constitutional law, Ruti Teitel is the Ernst C. Stiefel Professor of Comparative Law at New York Law School and Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics. Last year, she was a Straus Fellow at New York University Law School’s Straus Institute for the Advanced Study of Law and Justice (2012-2013).

Her most recent book, Globalizing Transitional Justice, just published by Oxford University Press, provides observations and insights on how the practice and discourse of transitional justice has been evolving, especially in relation to the rise of international criminal law and the increasing centrality of international human rights. Her path-breaking book, Transitional Justice (Oxford University Press, 2000), examines the 20th century transitions to democracy in many countries. Born in Argentina, Professor Teitel’s interest in the topic grew out of the dilemmas confronting that society in the transition out of junta rule. Her book explores the recurring question of how new regimes should respond to past repression, contending that the law can play a profound role in periods of radical change in advancing a new sense of legitimacy.

Her book Humanity’s Law (Oxford University Press, 2011) explores a paradigm shift in international affairs. For an online Roundtable Discussion on Opinio Juris, click here. Click here for mention in NewStatesman Books of 2011. Click here for a review in Foreign Affairs, published by the Council on Foreign Relations. Click here for a review in The European Journal of Internatonal Law. A panel discussion about the book was held on May 23, 2012 at Tel-Aviv University Law School.

Her extensive body of scholarly writing on comparative law, human rights, and constitutionalism is published in many law reviews, including: “Beyond Compliance: Rethinking Why International Law Really Matters” in the Global Policy Journal (Vol. 1, Issue 2, May 2010), which won the GPPN and the Global Policy Journal Best Article Prize. Other recent articles include: “The Law and Politics of Contemporary Transitional Justice” and “Humanity’s Law: Rule of Law for the New Global Politics,” both in the Cornell International Law Journal, as well as “Comparative Constitutionalism in a Global Age” in the Harvard Law Review. She has contributed dozens of book chapters to published volumes relating to law and politics, including “Transitional Justice and the Transformation of Constitutionalism,” in the Comparative Constitutional Law Handbook (ed. Rosalind Dixon and Tom Ginsburg, Edward Elgar 2011 ); “Global Justice, Poverty and the International Economic Order,” in The Philosophy of International Law (Samantha Besson and John Tasioulas, eds., Oxford University Press 2010) (coauthored with Rob Howse) ; “The Transitional Apology” in Taking Wrongs Seriously: Apologies and Reconciliation (Stanford University Press, 2006), “Transitional Rule of Law” in Rethinking the Rule of Law After Communism (Central European University Press, 2005), “Empire’s Law: Foreign Relations by Presidential Fiat,” in Sept. 11 In History: A Watershed Moment? (Duke University Press, 2003), and “Transitional Justice as Liberal Narrative” in Transnational Legal Processes: Globalisation and Power Disparities (Butterworths 2002). She also writes on human rights issues for a broader audience, having published in The New York Times, Legal Affairs, Findlaw.com and Project Syndicate. She serves on the Board of Editors of Oxford’s International Journal of Transitional Justice, of the Journal, Humanity as well the Editorial Advisory Board of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Human Rights Law.

A cum laude graduate of Georgetown University, Professor Teitel received her J.D. from Cornell Law School and has been a Senior Fellow at the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School. She has taught at Yale, Fordham and Tel Aviv Law Schools, as well as Columbia University’s Politics Department and its School of International and Public Affairs, where she is currently a Distinguished Research Scholar.

She is the founding co-chair of the American Society of International Law, Interest Group on Transitional Justice and Rule of Law. She is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and is a member of the International Law Association Human Rights Law Committee, London and US. She is on the Steering Committee at the University of Leiden Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies Post-Conflict Justice and ‘Local Ownership’ Research Project. Prof. Teitel is an Advisory Board Member, Security in Transition Research Programme, European Research Council, London School of Economics. For more info, go to: http://www.securityintransition.org/.

BOOKS

GLOBALIZING TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE: Essays for the New Millennium (Oxford University Press 2014).

On the subject of the genesis of the term “transitional justice,” click here for for David Lubin’s review of Closing the Books: Transitional Justice in Historical Perspective by Jon Elster. New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2000; paperback edition, Oxford University Press, 2001.

“How are the New Democracies of the Southern Cone Dealing with the Legacy of past Human Rights Abuses?” In Transitional Justice: How Emerging Democracies Reckon with Former Regimes, Volume I, 146–153, N.J. Kritz, ed. United States Institute of Peace, 1995.

“Persecution and Inquisition: A Case Study.” Chapter 10 in Transition to Democracy in Latin America: The Role of the Judiciary, 141–153, I. Stotsky, ed. Westview Press, 1993.

LAW REVIEW AND OTHER SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS

Does Humanity Law Require (or Imply) a Progressive Theory of History? (and Other Questions for Martti Koskenniemi) (Symposium: Engaging the Writings of Martti Koskenniemi), 27 TEMPLE INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE LAW JOURNAL 377-397 (2013) (with R. Howse).

“Judgment at The Hague.” 5 East European Constitutional Review 80–85 (Fall 1996).

“Transcript (Symposium: Nazis in the Courtroom: Lessons From the Conduct of Lawyers and Judges Under the Laws of the Third Reich and Vichy, France).” 61 Brooklyn Law Review 1149–1153, 1160 (1995) (with J.B. Weinstein, R.H. Weisberg & D. Luban).

“Paradoxes in the Revolution of the Rule of Law (Symposium: Constitutionalism in the Post-Cold War Era).” 19 Yale Journal of International Law 239–247 (1994).

Book Review of The Human Rights of Aliens in Contemporary International Law, by Richard B. Lillich. 19 New York University Journal of International Law and Politics 479–490 (1987) (with O. Kupferschmid).

“When Separate is Equal: Why Organized Religious Exercises, Unlike Chess, Do Not Belong in the Public Schools (Symposium: Freedom of Association).” 81 Northwestern University Law Review 174–189 (1986).

Book Review of Reconsecrating America, by George Goldberg. 2 Constitutional Commentary 529–535 (1985).

“The Unconstitutionality of Equal Access Policies and Legislation Allowing Organized Student-Initiated Religious Activities in the Public High Schools: A Proposal for a Unitary First Amendment Forum Analysis.” 12 Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly 529–595 (1985).

“The Best Route,” by James Podgers in the ABA Journal, December 2006 (in connection with that ABA Conference on Transitional Justice, New York University Law School, “From Nuremberg to Africa: The Evolution of Accountability and Recovery From Conflict”)

“National Sovereignty: A Cornerstone of International Law and an Obstacle to Protecting Citizens,” Legal Affairs 27–29 (September/October 2002).

Moderator, “Symposium: The International Criminal Court: Contemporary Perspectives and Prospects for Ratification.” 16 New York Law School Journal of Human Rights 505–551 (2000).

Panelist: “War Crimes and the Political Future of Bosnia and Herzegovina” (Council on Foreign Relations Symposium) in After Dayton: Lessons of the Bosnian Peace Process at 67, 73–77 (R. Wedgwood, ed., Council on Foreign Relations, 2000).

Panelist, “Debate 3: Do School Vouchers Violate the Establishment Clause? Are They Good Policy? (Conference on the First Amendment and Government Support for Religion and Religious Institutions)” 1 Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion 5 (1999/2000).

Book Review of War Crimes: Brutality, Genocide, Terror, and the Struggle for Justice by Aryeh Neier. 8 East European Constitutional Review 112–114 (Winter/Spring 1999).

Moderator, “Panel III: Identifying and Prosecuting War Crimes (Symposium: 1945–1995: Critical Perspectives on the Nuremberg Trials and State Accountability).” 12 New York Law School Journal of Human Rights 631–688 (1995).

Education:

Author of a path-breaking book on transitional justice and frequent speaker in academia and media on international human rights and constitutional law. Served on Human Rights Watch Europe Committee (2001-2011). Council on Foreign Relations, Life Member. International Law Association, member, International Human Rights Committee.